Bass Control

Why do we need bass management? Bass tones communicate feeling and physical power in music and film. Carefully controlling each speaker’s magnitude and phase is necessary to create a space where each participant fully experiences a song or a film score. This solution will provide a consistently excellent listening environment regardless of listener location.

Optimizing a sound system’s magnitude and phase response is especially crucial in the range of frequencies near the subwoofers’ upper limit. This “crossover point” is where the output of different speaker types overlap and can result in wide variations in magnitude and phase at various locations in space. Any solution to correct these issues must consider variables such as the shape of the room, location and direction of each speaker, reflective or obstructive surfaces, and multiple observation points to ensure consistent performance throughout the space.

While equalization (EQ) solutions can improve an audio system’s tone, they don’t correct for phase. A 100 percent phase linear system delivers sound from every speaker in every frequency to the listener at the same time. An out-of-phase system will have reduced clarity and accuracy, resulting in a sub-optimal experience. The difference is typically experienced a less tight and boomy bass.

The more speakers a sound system has, the more reflections and interferences are likely to occur. High-end home theater systems often have multiple subwoofers. Aligning all speakers optimally for each listener location can be complicated.